The present invention relates to a device for sticking an adhesive tape to the top of a circular thin article such as a silicon wafer forming a substrate of an integrated circuit, cutting off the tape along the peripheral edge of the thin article, and removing the tape except for the portion stuck to the thin article.
In the prior art, it was generally the practice to manually stick .an adhesive tape to the top of a thin article and then cut the tape along the peripheral edge of the article.
Manually sticking adhesive tape to a thin article and trimming off the excess tape as in the prior art has problems in that a large number of steps are required to perform the work and the tape is likely to be wrinkled.
Also, the applicant disclosed, in Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 249299/61 an apparatus for trimming excess portions of adhesive tape stuck on a thin article The apparatus includes a stage having groove and a cutting device which moves along the grooves.